Great point, a variable annual fee based on one’s AAdvantage status would be fair to be more in line with Admirals Club membership fees. With the fixed $450 total annual fee for the CitiExec card structure as it stands now:
AAdv: $450 in AC renewal + $0 base annual fee for the CC + all the bennies elites get
AA GLD: $400 in AC renewal + $50 base annual fee for the CC
AA PLT: $350 in AC renewal + $100 base annual fee for the CC
AA EXP: $300 in AC renewal + $150 base annual fee for the CC
The static $450 total annual fee for the CitiExec Card doesn’t really benefit elites. It seems to benefit the regular AAdvantage member and looks like that the elites are being punished with higher annual fees. Not a very good incentive to reward AA’s most frequent flyers IMO.
[snip]
But if AA wants to move towards this direction to rewards its own frequent customers and save costs in issuing new cards every year, I think a bit more could’ve been done. IMO, an annual fee system like the one below would’ve made more sense:
AAdv: $400 in AC renewal + $100 fixed base annual fee for the CC + all the bennies elites have
AA GLD: $350 in AC renewal + $100 fixed base annual fee for the CC
AA PLT: $300 in AC renewal + $100 fixed base annual fee for the CC
AA EXP: $250 in AC renewal + $100 fixed base annual fee for the CC
Instead of a fixed total annual fee, now the total annual fee for the CitiExec Card will be variable between $500-$350 based on one’s status on AAdvantage.